we were at school together and you owe me a tenner.”
“Oh, well,” he said in a resigned sort of voice.
“Besides, old thing,” I said, “I did it all for your sake, you know.”
He looked at me in a curious way, and breathed rather hard for some moments.
“Bertie,” he said, “one moment. I will stand a good deal, but I will not stand being expected to be grateful.”
Looking back at it, I can see that what saved me from Colney Hatch in this crisis was my bright idea in buying up most of the contents of the local sweet-shop. By serving out sweets to the kid practically incessantly we managed to get through the rest of that day pretty